Russian Tyre Imports Crash 8.6% in 1H 2009

With the Russian economy fairing worst that most at the moment, the tyre business in this part of the world has taken a similarly significant hit, with both imports and exports falling heavily in the first half of 2009. Tyre manufacturers appear to have been offering significant discounts (or exporting lower value items) in the first half of 2009 with unit export figures falling far slower than export values. Data compiled by the Russian Discovery Research Group shows exports totalled 3,259,440 units in the first half of 2009, down 8.6 per cent from 3,566,469 units in the first half of 2008. Meanwhile, passenger-car tyre exports fell 7.1 per cent in the period, with truck tyre exports down 14.9 per cent. Exports of light truck tyres countered the trend, growing 40 per cent.

Looking at the Russian market broken down by value, the most striking figure is that tyre exports in the period fell 302 million rubles to 214.4 million rubles (approximately £4.434 million; 4.9 million euros; and US$7.362 million, according to current exchange rates). Dig a little deeper and you can see that the brunt of this deflation has been borne by truck tyres. Exports of passenger car tyres fell 15.6 per cent by value, with the value of commercial vehicle tyres down 40 per cent.

As far as passenger car tyres are concerned, imports of these products peaked in 2008 after double digit increases from most foreign manufacturers.For further coverage of this subject see November’s Tyres & Accessories and subsequent online stories.

Tables:

Most international premium tyre makers reported marked falls in imports in the first half of 2009.

Table 1:- Fastest fallers regarding tyre imports into Russia for first half of 2009, compared with the first half of 2008 (Source: Discovery Research Group)

Table 2:- However, imports of Japanese-produced tyres grew fast (Source: Discovery Research Group)